Is "I was just following orders" a viable defense here?
There might have been a possibility of a claim that we employees asked to download the material were committing a criminal offense under the 'posession with during business with intent to commit and act of infringement', but even there I think it'd be the VPs that had the stupid idea that were committing infringement, not us lowly employees asked to acquire the material.
About the best I suspect CPS could hope for would be a threat as a cudgel to admit who suggested the idea. But I'd have happily told them, and I left the company very shortly after.